Information flowed both ways. Every report sent out carried insight into what foreign powers considered important. Every pattern revealed priorities, fears, and intentions.
Destroy the network completely, and a new one would form with far more hidden, unpredictable, and dangerous.
But allow it to exist, controlled and observed, and it will become a tool.
....
Back in the city,
At the northern exit, because the Ryntum had abolished the city wall, a lone traveller passed through without issue, carrying a small sealed message hidden within the lining of his coat.
At the docks, a cargo ship quietly prepared to depart.
On a distant road beyond the capital, a rider urged his horse forward under the cover of darkness, carrying memorised intelligence that could not be confiscated.
One by one, the spies disappeared into the night.
....
Cerdeauxia.
Deep inside the presidential palace, President Walter Thompson looks at the freshly arrived intel.
